A improvisação em dança como espaço de formação do artista pelo cultivo da autonomia-alteridade

Abstract

This research investigates dance improvisation as a space for the formation and cultivation of the autonomy-alterity of the dancing subject. Based on the cognitive approach of enaction and the theory of the embodied mind by Thompson, Rosch, and Varela (1993)—which conceives cognition as a process that arises through the sensorimotor apparatus and the body immersed in experience—this study asks: How does improvisational dance become a space for self-elaboration? What is the role of the other in the teaching-learning process of improvisation in non-formal dance education settings? In what ways does improvisation configure itself as a formative space and as a field for cultivating the autonomy-alterity of the dancing subject? The object of this investigation is the continuity between autonomy and alterity, argued here as an inherent element of improvisation and as essential to its teaching-learning process. The body is positioned as the core of formative processes, highlighting dance improvisation as a space for knowledge production. The research reflects on how autonomy-alterity is mobilized through the artistic-formative practice of dance improvisation, focusing in particular on the works of Dudude, Morena Nascimento, and Eduardo Fukushima, as explored in the program METRI – Mergulho Treino Intenso, in 2023 and 2024. The methodological path encompassed a literature review addressing the operative concepts of dance improvisation; experience, teaching- learning, autonomy, and alterity; semi-structured interviews with the three artist-educators; documentary research in archives of interviews, videos, websites, and written materials by the participants; and participant observation conducted during the immersive METRI experience. For the purposes of this study, an artist-educator is defined as one who develops their work through improvisational research and proposes dance improvisation experiences in non-formal education contexts. The participants in this study are the artist-educators Dudude, Morena Nascimento, and Eduardo Fukushima, with the aim of investigating whether and in what ways autonomy-alterity is articulated in their artistic-formative practices of dance improvisation. The METRI program was chosen for its distinctive immersive proposal, annually organized by the artist Dudude in Casa Branca, Brumadinho – MG, Brazil. The six-day retreat in a setting removed from urban daily life fosters a collective space of deep engagement with corporeal research through dance improvisation. The dissertation is structured into four chapters, addressing conceptual alignment, the study of autonomy and alterity, and the role of non-formal spaces of dance improvisation as crucial contexts for self-perception and self-work of the dancing artist. The findings affirm that dance improvisation constitutes a formative space for cultivating autonomy-alterity, oriented by relational self-perception and self-work within danced action, permeated by sensitive and ethical listening. Improvisational dance is affirmed as a political practice that fosters spaces for exercising modes of existence, responsibility, difference-making, and singular ways of being and becoming within the collective. Finally, this research proposes that improvisation be considered a terrain of sociocultural transformation that resists social normativities and affirms dance as a sociocultural-political practice, democratic and strengthening for both individual and collective subjectivities.